Avocado Valley

Burringbar grower and Mullumbimby Farmers Market stallholder, Tony Hinds, says the fruit at the moment are as good as they get.

“All the avocados now, the oil content is right up so they’re all eating very, very well,” he said.

High oil content not only gives the avocados a good flavour, it also helps the fruit ripen all the way through, which is exactly what they are doing now: “They’re ripening beautifully,” Tony said.

Tony’s Avocado Valley stall has just returned to the Mullumbimby Farmers Market for the 2017 season and Tony says he will have a good supply of his spray-free avocados right through until the end of the year: “We’re solid for the next five months with fruit,” he said.

The nutty full-flavoured Hass and the creamy Sharwil – which has a smaller seed and more flesh – are Tony’s two main varieties, along with the Reed, which appears later in the season.

Tony’s takes pride in the quality of his avocados, which he says is due to the fact that they are picked fresh every week.

”We pick the fruit, we ripen the fruit and then we sell the fruit,” he said

“The trouble with the supermarket fruit is that it’s picked, stored on farm, transported, ripened at the wholesaler – who can store it for a week or two – then sold and finally it gets to the shelf. When you get it, it could be a few weeks old.

“We don’t hold the fruit from week to week – that’s where the quality comes into it.”

He says chill damage is a common problem with commercial avocados.

“If fruit has been held for too long at too cold temperatures you get the browning around the seed coat. We don’t chill anything.“

Tony says he selects fruit that will ripen within 2-4 days of being sold at the Friday market, so that customers can enjoy them during the week, and come back for the next week’s supply the following Friday.